How to qualify for free cruise at the casino

[Bigbob7777]

Does anyone have any idea how many hours at the tables (black jack, etc) and what limits you must play to qualify for free cruises?  Do you have to go every night and play 5 hours with $25 bets?  Any historical guidelines ya’ll can give me?  I know that it’s hard to be totally certain, but what have ya’ll done in the past to earn it?

bob

[cruiserbear55]

1 hour ago, Bigbob7777 said:

Does anyone have any idea how many hours at the tables (black jack, etc) and what limits you must play to qualify for free cruises?  Do you have to go every night and play 5 hours with $25 bets?  Any historical guidelines ya’ll can give me?  I know that it’s hard to be totally certain, but what have ya’ll done in the past to earn it?

bob

No one really knows, but spending your kids inheritance in the casino might help!  Seriously, if you get a certificate , go on a cruise and make sure you use your players card religiously. At that point, you'll be able to deal with CAS directly, and not have to worry about qualifying at your local casino. You'll get far better offers if you pour your money through the slots as opposed to the tables. Just like land based casinos, which drives my wife crazy. We can go to our local watering hole and gamble dollar for dollar. I play slots and she tables. I receive the offers for free rooms, free slot play, free concerts, etc. She is lucky to get a $15.00 match play! Go figure. Happy cruising!!

[MoCruiseFan]

the best thing to do is make sure you always use your cabin card in the casino.  This page (https://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/casino-cruise) gives a rough outline of the point system.

[AndyCapn]

Generally casinos will offer table game comps based on 40% of your theoretical loss. If blackjack has a house edge of 3%, you can expect to earn $1.20 in comps for every $100 bet.

 

So if you play $25 a hand for 5 hours, at 50 hands per hour, that's $6,250 a day for a theoretical loss of $187.50, and 40% of that in $75.

 

$75 a day probably won't be enough to get a free 7-day cruise. 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, MoCruiseFan said:

the best thing to do is make sure you always use your cabin card in the casino.  This page (https://www.ncl.com/why-cruise-norwegian/casino-cruise) gives a rough outline of the point system.

Room comps are not directly related to your tier status. They are based on your theoreticals. They are also looking for consistent play (an hour or two a day). 

[JYDCruise]

31 minutes ago, AndyCapn said:

Generally casinos will offer table game comps based on 40% of your theoretical loss. If blackjack has a house edge of 3%, you can expect to earn $1.20 in comps for every $100 bet.

As an aside, I was surprised at how reasonable the BJ rules were - double on any two cards,  etc. Pretty much all favorable except for no surrender. The main thing is to not play the $10 table - those only pay 6/5 on blackjack (which is a huge edge to the house), while the $15 tables and up pay 3/2.

 

As a further aside, the poker players were . . .well, not the strongest. 🙂 I played a cash game one night, and it was a great game, until I found out that it's a 10% rake, up to $25 - yoikes!

[ProblemCruiser]

However many hours it takes for you to lose more than the 7 day cruise would cost NCL at their cost.  

 

NCL is taking a little gamble of its own that it can get you to spend more in gambling losses and sunk cost fallacies on said free cruise than it will need to spend to get you to those tables. 

 

The odds are very much in their favor.

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by ProblemCruiser
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[UKstages]

the OP is talking - at least initially - about qualifying for a cruise at his land-based casino... NCL qualifying criteria don't really factor into the equation.

 

as for "losing more than a 7 day cruise would cost NCL..."

 

hard to tell here if you're joking, but speaking for myself, as somebody who has many thousand dollar coffee makers and toaster ovens, you may be right.

 

but perhaps not.

 

i've had very tasty offers for ten day comped cruises directly from CAS... and this was following cruise(s) on which i played consistently, but less than i had before... and i won. if it's anything like a land-based casino, it's based on your ADT, your "action," independent of win/loss and it's likely based on the average of several trips. one land-based casino i frequent takes your last four trips, excuses the the trip with the lowest theo, then averages the other three to determine your eligibility for various offers.

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, ProblemCruiser said:

However many hours it takes for you to lose more than the 7 day cruise would cost NCL at their cost. NCL is taking a little gamble of its own that it can get you to spend more in gambling losses and sunk cost fallacies on said free cruise than it will need to spend to get you to those tables. The odds are very much in their favor.

So, there are more casino players that you would think. On some cruises over 25% of the adult guests are are some sort of casino offer. Direct from CAS (comp'ed and discounted), land-based certificates, land-based discounts (e.g., Caesars Diamond discounts)). Think about it, every 4th door as you walk down the hall is sailing on a casino discount. And you are paying retail.